Disaster at local beach
 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-37178643

5 people died on Camber Sands Beach east Sussex yesterday a beach local too me being only about 40 miles from home.
Although yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far the sea is still very cold and swimmers not used to cold sea swimming get into difficulties.
Wearing big baggy shorts won't help either.

BBC News today
Five men who died at Camber Sands could have got into trouble after failing to realise how quickly the tide would come in, the RNLI believes.

The men were on a day trip from London to the Sussex resort on Wednesday.

The RNLI said it did not believe that rip currents were responsible for the deaths. Police said the group were in their late teens and early 20s.

One of the victims, Nitharsan Ravi, drove to the resort with four friends, his brother Ajirthan told the BBC.

He identified two of the other men as Kobi and Ken Nathan, from Erith in south-east London.

The RNLI said it believed all five men fell into deep channels of water between sand-bars - mounds of sand created by wave and tide activity - which had been made deeper with the weekend storms.

Extremely fast tides

Guy Addington, from the RNLI, said: "It's very difficult to know at the moment, we don't have the full information, but it's possible that they were cut off by the series of sand-bars."

He said rip currents could occur at Camber but the sea was so calm on Wednesday that this was unlikely, and it was more likely sand-bars were involved.

"It's entirely possible and it does happen at Camber that people become cut off on the series of sand bars that are extensive on that part of the coast," he added.

He said there could be a 3ft (1m) difference between the the top of a sand-bar and the trough and added: "An increase of depth of 3ft to a non-proficient or non-swimmer can be really significant."

Mr Addington also said because Camber was a "shallow, shelving beach", the tide could go out and race in extremely fast - faster than someone could walk quickly.

"Add to that the complication of the undulating sand-bars, that can catch people out quite easily," he said.

A very sad story. Choice of swimwear has nothing to do with this very traumatic loss of life.

Quick Sands
 

From the local news I understand that a flash flood earlier revived a normally dry, buried creek that flows under the sand. This created a quicksand that trapped two of the men and the other three died attempting to save them.
We shall have to wait for the inquest to be sure, but sadly no beach is really "safe" it's just that the odds on disaster are very long ones.

I came back from Dieppe on Saturday's midnight ferry. The wind had been building up bigger and bigger waves along the Normandy coast. I visited the famous falais at Etratat where Monet painted and saw the sea crashing against the cliffs. The French lifeguards were flying the red flag at Dieppe warning it was too dangerous for swimmers.
The crossing on the ferry was rough as the storm was raging, no one was eating or drinking and it was difficult to walk around. This was the storm that moved the sand around at Camber creating the dangerous gullies that caught the visitors.